Mehran Randall Rasti, known to many as Randy, was born on August 7, 1945 in Yazd, Iran and passed away on February 2, 2013 at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. due to post-surgical complications. Mehran is survived by his wife Fereshteh Rasti, mother Rouhangiz Khazeh Rasti, son Roddy Mehrad Rasti, daughter-in-law Ty Hallmark, brother Mehrdad Ronnie Rasti, sister Mahvash Rasti Pibworth, and many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and more. He is preceded in death by his father, Dr. Keykhosrow Rasti.

A Baha'i man of faith and a much-beloved family member, Mehran was also a lifelong trailblazer: He was the first lone Rasti to come to America, paving the way for future generations. He was also an early adopter of the latest technologies, from powerful stereo amplifiers and speakers to the first personal home computer. Mehran was not satisfied merely being a collector; he was also a lifelong creator - innovator, entrepreneur, and visionary thinker - who developed countless inventions, gadgets, ideas, patents, and related businesses over the years.

Often for Mehran, this pioneering spirit meant taking the road less traveled, however winding. Though accepted to the exclusive Shiraz Medical University in Iran and primed to pursue a path paralleling his father's, Mehran instead set his sights half a world away, to the land of Elvis movies -- the United States of America. In 1964, Mehran arrived as an international student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where his brother, following in Mehran's footsteps, soon arrived as well. Though both brothers graduated from LSU as engineers, Ronnie started a family and settled down in Baton Rouge, while Mehran, after a short stint working in Chicago, went back overseas to complete his Iranian military service.

While in Tehran working as a translator for the Iranian Imperial Army, Mehran would meet the love of his life, Fereshteh. After a very memorable wedding in 1974 and the birth of their son in 1978, Mehran's promising career at the National Iranian Oil Company would be cut short, as Mehran and Fereshteh, with baby Roddy in hand, fled from the Iranian Revolution in 1979, never to return to their homeland.

Back Stateside after a half-year in England with his parents and near his sister, Mehran and his new family spent the next decade hopping between the New Orleans, Houston and especially the Dallas Metropolitan Regions, where they amassed many lifelong friends. At Scotia Energy, Sun, and other oil companies in the area, Mehran further honed his love of computers and creation into full-time professions.

By the 1990s, Mehran's path had led him back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he spent several years working at Exxon Chemicals and Georgia Gulf. Then, in what he always considered an unlikely fate, Mehran found himself once more in LSU's Department of Petroleum Engineering, where he'd graduated decades prior. For 16 years, during which his son, niece and nephew also graduated from LSU, Mehran served as PetE's Network Administrator and Data Processing/Computer Services Manager before proudly retiring in 2010, moving with his wife to Fredericksburg, VA to be closer to his son and daughter-in-law now in Maryland.

Mehran's warm, creative spirit and cheerful smile will be missed, cherished and fondly remembered by all. Graveside funeral services will be held on Friday, February 8, 1:30pm at Laurel Hill Memorial Park, 10127 Plank Road, Spotsylvania VA 22553, (540) 972-1709.